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FAQ for Engineering Profiles and the CAP Transition

Peter T. Chen
- August 31, 2016 16:24

As of September 18, 2013, the School of Engineering website has disabled editing and creation of profile pages for all faculty and staff on http://engineering.stanford.edu. The reason for this change is to facilitate the University-wide transition to utilizing the CAP (Community Academic Profiles) system for centralizing all profile information that will be happening across Stanford University websites including the School of Engineering.

Our plans are for the School of Engineering to soon synchronize with CAP (also referred as http://profiles.stanford.edu) so that there will be a single point of maintenance for all profile information across the University (public and internal).

[updated: 10/18]

My profile ON HTTP://ENGINERING.STANFORD.EDU IS getting outdated in the transition period AND I NEED IT CHANGED IMMEDIATELY!

Sure, we understand, and don't want to distribute incorrect or inaccurate information. Please submit a ticket to our helpdesk with the address of the web page, the intended correction(s), and we will attempt to address it asap. n.b. We are not continuing to migrate new changes therefore, any new changes made on engineering.stanford.edu/profiles/* forward will be the owner's responsibility to update on CAP as well.

Why disable editing of my profile on http://enginering.stanford.edu?

We understand the dynamic nature of information on the Internet and are working quickly to try and get those synchronization steps in place. The disabling of localized editing on engineering.stanford.edu is the first step to ensure that data migrations and transfers remain consistent through this transition period. If editing takes place during the transition period, those changes will not transfer when we begin to source our data from CAP. Our intention is for this transition period to be as brief as possible.

How brief is this transition expected to be?

The University announced an internal preview and use of CAP on September 12, 2013 and indicated that public release of http://profiles.stanford.edu will occur in early October is expecting to make a public release of the site on November 1. We are planning on linking all individual profiles on http://engineering.stanford.edu to those public ones within a few days after the public release date. This will be a first step in keeping the data in sync. The second step will involve a transfer of CAP data BACK to http://engineering.stanford.edu and continual synchronization from that point forward. That transition is expected to happen before the end of the calendar year.

What will my profile look like on engineering.stanford.edu after the transition?

The first step will involve a prominent link on your profile page on http://engineering.stanford.edu and message that the most current profile data for you is on http://profiles.stanford.edu - this is why it is important that you review the profile that has been set up for you on CAP. Our transition team has been diligently working through the summer to ensure that the most current information about you was transferred from the School of Engineering website to CAP.

The second step (when data is synchronized back from CAP to the School of Engineering will be a bit briefer than the information that is presented today. CAP and the information presented at http://profiles.stanford.edu is a robust, elegant, and sustainable tool that Engineering can use to source relevant portions of information from.

What about my profile on my department web site?

The School of Engineering Web team is also working on a number of transitions for Department web sites. During this transition, we are recommending that Departments take a similar approach towards consolidating references to profile on CAP by pointing their faculty and staff listings and internal profiles towards CAP. As mentioned above, we have had a team working to transfer data from current profiles into CAP prior to the preview period to help ease the transition. Departments can help support but encouraging internal faculty and staff to review these profiles and begin repointing their listing pages to these profiles.

Shouldn't I just send people who want to find out about me over to http://profile.stanford.edu/[my-name]

Sure. With CAP becoming the central point of distribution of profile information, we expect people to distribute CAP as a reference to who they are in the Stanford University community as an individual. Your Department(s) and/or the School of Engineering will be linked to from your profile.

What about updating my research publications, research interests, and other information?

CAP has a whole section dedicated to maintaining publication date that is robust and well supported. There are also other segments in the profile management section dedicated to Research Interests, Courses Taught, Awards and Honors, and much more. Please see the CAP help section for more details on maintaining this information.

Can I set up a proxy or have someone else manage my profile on CAP?

Absolutely! See CAP help (How do I grant editing rights to another person?) for more details on how to set this up.